


All-American Halloween

by gnostic_heretic



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 1920s, Drama, Existential Angst, F/M, Gen, Ghosts, HWD drabbles, Halloween, Historical Hetalia, M/M, Religious Discussion, Spooky, Supernatural Elements, Temporary Character Death, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27356485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnostic_heretic/pseuds/gnostic_heretic
Summary: “Do I believe in ghosts?” Tolys frowned. “Well, it’s complicated. Alfred, you believe there’s life after death?”
Relationships: America/Lithuania (Hetalia), Belarus/Lithuania (Hetalia), Lithuania/Poland (Hetalia)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	All-American Halloween

A cloud of steam rose from the pot of hot water. It warmed Tolys’ face, it blurred his vision and it made his nose run. _I might have a cold_ , he thought— but he didn’t mind that much.

He enjoyed washing the dishes, the nice scent of soap, the repetitive movements. One plate, then another, in endless circular motions. 

Truth to be told, he liked almost everything about his newfound domestic life in the States: Alfred’s reassuring presence, his stories and his jokes, the smell of stew that lingered in the kitchen, the faint song that came from the radio next room. 

_Then good luck came a-knocking at my door,_ _  
_ _Skies were gray but they're not gray anymore..._

The static that always accompanied it, like the scratch of a gramophone.

(Alfred always said that it was hard to get the right frequency, out there in the countryside.)

In the prairie Tolys felt safe, far away from those people and memories that accompanied his daily life for hundreds of years.

_Never saw the sun shining so bright, never saw things going so right_

_Noticing the days hurrying by, when you're in love, my how they fly..._

The wind blew outside, a draft of cold air whistled at the window when Tolys heard a child scream; immediately followed by a fit of frenzied laughter, and the rattling of chains.   
He quickly glanced outside, and for a moment, he thought he saw the pale shadow of a spirit in the mist, approaching Alfred’s home. 

The pot he was holding in his hands almost dropped in the sink.

* * *

  
  


“Alfred,” he spoke hesitantly as he entered the living room, “I think there’s someone out in the front yard. For a moment, I thought I really saw a ghost… but I think it was—”

“A child?”

Alfred glanced up from his book, his blue eyes cold and serious behind his glasses. Tolys nodded. 

As always, Alfred’s laughter brought him back to Earth. “Oh, that’s trick or treaters! We better get some candy from the cabinet.” He set his book down on the coffee table, and went to look for something in the kitchen cabinet. 

Tolys followed him closely, unsure what to do. 

“Wait, what does that mean?”

Alfred gave him a puzzled look. “Don’t you guys celebrate Halloween in Russia?” 

Tolys rolled his eyes. _In Russia, huh_. He almost corrected him, but stopped himself from speaking out of line (old habits are hard to break, after all). He thought about it. 

“We celebrate around this time,” he said, “but we don’t really eat candy.”

“Well, we are not going to eat candy, the kids are. Unless you want some?” Alfred rustled inside a drawer for a bit, and he offered him a cigarette. “Don’t worry, it’s not tobacco! Better than the real deal, if you ask me.”

Tolys smiled. It tasted like sugar, with a slight hint of fruit.

Sweet and reassuring, just like the sight of Alfred’s strong back, his large shoulders turned to him as he walked towards the door. 

And yet, sitting on the couch near the fireplace as he waited for Alfred to deal with the kids, he couldn’t shake the ominous feeling from a moment before. He felt a cold breath on his neck; maybe, he thought it would be wise to wear a scarf on a cold night like this. 

* * *

Alfred came back with a lollipop stuck in his mouth.  
“Noisy kids!” He gestured vaguely at the door. “They’re having so much fun, the little brats. I wish I could join them!” 

_After all, he is still somewhat of a child himself,_ Tolys thought. He might have been big and strong, but two hundred years and something… it wasn’t really that much, in the grand scheme of things; in the flow of history. Not for someone like them. 

“I know what you’re thinking,” Alfred said, “but there’s more to it than just the nostalgia.”

He paused, and his expression suddenly changed. 

“It’s strange maybe,” he continued, “but I wish I could have my own kid, sometimes. Just one little boy. To go trick or treat, or to take him out to camp with the Boy Scouts, to teach him everything I know… all that I’ve learned by myself. To be the dad I never had, to make a child happy, or well, to make myself happy… I guess. As silly as something like being a dad sounds, for _someone like us_.” 

Tolys didn’t know what to say.

“It doesn’t sound silly at all.” 

His fingers twisted and crossed, restless, his thumb ran over his bitten nails. 

It wasn’t the first time he had heard someone like them express this particular longing: but he was aware, and _America_ must have also known, that something like that comes at a costly price. Even if Alfred managed to have a child with a human, or to somehow adopt a human baby, the effects of spending too much time too close to a “nation” would sooner or later drive any human out of their mind.

After a moment of awkward silence, Alfred half-heartedly forced a laugh.

“Ha, ha! I know, um.” _Time to change the subject._   
“So Tolys! Tell me all about it.” He sat down on the sofa right next to Lithuania, and leaned closer to him. “You said you guys don’t give candy to the kids? How do you even celebrate Halloween?”   
“Well,” Tolys said, “it’s simply different. On All Souls’ day we honor and remember the dead. There’s mass, we say some prayers, then we go to the graveyard. Many people bring flowers.”

Alfred gave him a disappointed pout. “No sweets at all, then?”  
  


Tolys shook his head. He looked straight into Alfred’s eyes, with an intense expression that took the younger man aback. 

“Many years ago… long before you were even born, Alfred,” he smiled, “the day of All Souls was called Ilgės. The day of _longing_. Back then our celebrations were less... somber, I suppose. We danced, we sang and made sacrifices, and we shared bread and mead with those who had lived before us.”

As he heard the word “sacrifices”, Alfred’s arms got covered in goosebumps. 

Animal sacrifices? _Human_ sacrifices? He didn’t dare to ask.   
“And did they enjoy the meal? The dead people, I mean,” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Come on, Tolys, don’t tell me you really believe in ghosts and spirits and all that!”

(The truth was, the idea of ghosts scared Alfred more than he cared to admit.)

Tolys shrugged. “It was more of a symbolic thing, I guess. It relieved people’s grief, to be able to break bread with their loved ones once more… on the day when the veil between life and death was thin, and could be crossed.”

“You didn’t answer my question, though.” 

“Do _I_ believe in ghosts?” Tolys frowned. “Well, it’s complicated. Alfred, you believe there’s life after death?”

Alfred laughed. “It’s… complicated.” He took another candy from his pocket, a candy cone left over from the previous year’s christmas decorations. He took a deep breath, and the scent of peppermint filled the air. “Ever since I was a kid, I was taught about… heaven and hell, and all that. You know, in church. But the more I keep living, the more I wonder if any of that is true. Or if it is just.”

“I see.”

“I’ve met so many people during these years, and so many have died. The idea that some of them might be suffering for eternity… it doesn’t sound righteous. I think if there’s a God, it has to be more complicated than that.”

Alfred gulped. He swallowed the last piece of candy, and coughed.

“To answer your question,” Tolys said, “I don’t know. All I know is that someone I loved died once, and he told me that after his death there was nothing. Not even darkness, not even consciousness. Not even dreams.”

* * *

_The only thing I could feel was my hands tingling, the pain of pins and needles, of my blood flowing after being still for so long. One moment I was freezing in the snow, the next moment I opened my eyes to the white marble ceiling of a crypt, the tomb that Austria had so nicely set up for me. They told me that my heart had stopped beating for a few years..._

Those were Feliks’ exact words, as he remembered them, written black and white on a letter with an obviously shaky hand. 

* * *

“But if he told you this after,” Alfred protested, “that means that he was never _really_ dead, right?”

“Perhaps you’re right. But that is not all.” Tolys nervously ran a hand through his hair. Those memories didn’t feel so far away anymore. “Someone I loved —a different person, I mean— once told me that ghosts are real, and so are souls. And that not only they exist, but that there are ways to speak to them.”

* * *

_At the end of the day, a ghost is just a soul wandering around without a body. It’s not scary. You can separate yourself from your soul for a moment, or even just lose control, and you can speak to them... if you’re lucky._

Those were Natalya’s exact words, spoken to him on the night of a new moon, when he caught her walking into the forest alone with only the light of a candle guiding her. 

* * *

Alfred’s eyes were wide open, as was his mouth.

“So one of them must be lying! This is just nonsense.”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that,” Tolys said. “But I know what it’s like to be young, and to feel like you can always know the truth. To even _think_ there’s one, absolute truth.”

“Sure, sure, old man.” 

(Alfred tried to shake the thought away, but it lingered. Even in front of the fireplace, his hands felt cold.)

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door twice. 

* * *

  
  


Alfred took Tolys’ hands, and put a handful of sweets in them. 

“You should go greet the kids this time,” he said, his usual, wide smile looking a little wider than usual; a little tense. “To get into the spirit of Halloween, _the American way_!”

Tolys hesitated. 

Well, it couldn’t _hurt_. 

It was just some kids, after all.  
  


He got up, and walked steadily towards the door.

He walked outside. There was nobody in front of him. 

“Hello?” 

He cleared his throat.

No answer. 

“If this is a joke,” he said, “it’s not funny.”

There was a chilling gust of wind, and the door slammed behind him. 

_Tolya_. 

A familiar voice called his name, a faint whisper from somewhere distant echoed in his ears.

Tolys felt dizzy, like he was going to faint. 

In front of him, the mist swirled into the shape of a body, the body and face of someone he had once loved. 

* * *

  
  


“Na… Natalya?”

“Took you long enough,” her voice said, louder and clearer now, “I’ve been waiting here for long enough. It’s full of stupid kids, for some reason.”  
Natalya’s silver hair swirled around her, her ethereal figure sculpted in moonlight.

Tolys tried to speak, but the words choked him, took his breath away. He was dazed, haunted by the sight of her. 

_Oh no,_ he thought, _if she’s here, if she is a ghost, then it means that she is—_   
“Tolya, do not worry.” Her hand touched his face, icy fingertips brushing against his skin, tracing the warm trail of his tears. “I am not dead. Did you forget?” 

“Forget?”

“On the night of _Ilgės_ ,” Natalya’s voice was sweet as honey as he said that word, the sound of Tolys’ language on the tip of her tongue. “The veil is lifted. It’s the only night I can come here… to say hello.”

“To say hello.” Tolys sobbed. “Do you always have to be so dramatic, I wonder.”

The light of Natalya’s eyes flickered. “Of course. You know me well enough.”

She came closer, her arms stretched forward, waiting for him to hold her; but the moment his trembling hand touched her, her spirit vanished in the fog. 

When Tolys closed his eyes, however, he could still see her eyes twinkling, shining bright as the stars. 

* * *

“So how did it go with the kids?” Alfred greeted him with a comically fatherly pat on the shoulder.

Tolys wiped the last traces of his tears away, hoping that the other wouldn’t notice.

“It was fun.” He looked at his hands, still red and numb from the cold. There was a small cut on his ring finger. Had it been there before? “I think I can get used to celebrating Halloween. The American way.”

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally 6 separate drabbles written for the HWD drabble game of Halloween 2020.  
> I tried my best to make this as cohesive as possible. I hope you enjoy it! It's a couple days late for Halloween because it took me a few days to edit it, but hopefully y'all were still in the mood for spooky ghost stories!
> 
> Comments and feedback are appreciated as always <3


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